On Thu, 8 Feb 2001, Clemente Colayco wrote:
> Can you give me a brief advise on how I can use a T32 to do proper fill in
> that gives natural skin tone colors instead of the usual very light or
> sometimes too white a skin color. I notice this happen as you say when the
> background is far behind the subject and or quite near (less than two
> meters..
When a flash unit is used on 'auto' settings, it is relying on
reflected light to quench the output at a level that gives theoretically
perfect exposures. Like with most camera meters, if the world was 18%
gray AND at the same plane away from the sensor/flash, this would be
no problem. But variables in tonality and distance from the flash enter
the equation in the real world. This makes 'auto' flash unreliable.
Flash exposure is dependent on the distance between the flash and
the subject (and output, of course). The latest generations of flash
systems, notably Nikon's D-based flash & matrix, use the distance
to set the flash exposure, thus giving more exact exposure.
Before the days of auto-anything, let alone the matrix, people
still got exact flash exposure by simply using the distance to set
exposure. This is what that calculator on the side of the flash is for,
and it (provided you know the output of your flash (GN) on 'manual')
can provide perfect exposures for you. I find a linear dial much
easier to work with, make them out of Dymo label, and stick them
on the flash unit where I can see them.
The second problem can be approached in two ways: First, to attenuate
the flash light quality, you can use the 21mm diffuser, if you're on auto,
a layer or two of lens tissue, and/or make yourself a reflector/bounce
card. This is easy to do with the T-32. Look in the archives, I gave
explicit instructions on how to make one.
Oh, what the heck...
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\ - - - - - - - / <}--<< fold to 45 deg here
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Use a white cardboard (a boxtop works well) piece to cut this out of.
Take your T-32 and turn the head to about 45 deg up. In the crack between
the head and the body of the flash insert the narrow end of the bounce
card. This will lower your GN considerably (depending on the size of
the card and how well it is aimed), and soften the quality of the
light considerably. This bounce card is also extremely handy when
doing OTF macros.
*= Doris Fang =*
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